Former Fianna Fáil backbench TD Noel O'Flynn said he is considering running in the general election as an independent.

The Cork businessman's comments came as he revealed he has been given "a new insight into the problems families face" after his son Gary (40) was jailed for soliciting someone to murder a garda, a Revenue Commission official and an accountant.

Gary O'Flynn, a former Cork City Council member, is now serving a three-year prison sentence for attempting to hire a hitman who was an undercover garda to kill the trio.

The former councillor and solicitor was diagnosed with a severe psychiatric illness.

"It has made me appreciate all the more what people with mental illnesses go through," Noel O'Flynn (63) said.

"I have also learned who my real friends are.

"We love all our children equally and we love Gary and we are there for him," he said.

With his wife Frances, he now goes to Cork Prison every week to visit his son.

The former TD was also scathing of Micheál Martin's leadership of the FF party.